In an effort to limit the number of times people use the phrase “sample size” in the comments section, a quick post on which minor league backstops to keep on your radar seems more appropriate than discussing Alex Avila’s .417-4-2-5 batting line through three games.  While most rosters are set, save for a few tweaks here and there, there are a number of catchers in the minors that are looking pretty darn good.  Dynasty league owners probably have them locked onto rosters already, but in other leagues, they should be known by you in case something goes wrong on the big league level.

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He probably only cost you a buck in your auction or a 23rd round pick in your 12-team, two-catcher, mixed league snake draft.  Not a very steep price to pay at all.  But the handwriting is already on the wall and it’s only a matter of time before Ramon Hernandez becomes a wasted pick for you.  Wilin Rosario is the catcher-of-the-future in Colorado and when he made the 25-man roster over this past weekend, Hernandez and his owners are learning that the future is now.

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For those that love to follow industry leagues, the Tout Wars drafts took place this past weekend in New York City.  In addition to their usual rundown, this year introduced a brand new Mixed League and as I was looking over some of the rosters, Josh Donaldson’s name stuck out to me.  He went for $4 to Rotowire’s Derek Van Riper who went with a “stars and scrubs” approach, but considering some of the other names that went for a buck, along with RotoGraphs’ reader Jeff’s question in the Catcher Tiers piece, it seems that Donaldson is on quite a few people’s fantasy radar these days.  Now the question remains, is he worth a look?

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So we’ve been through the Catcher Consensus Rankings and we’ve heard some of my initial thoughts on said rankings.  Well, now it’s time to put these guys into tiers so that you can see which players are most comparable to each other in expected production and where you can likely find them in your draft.  I’ll also chime in with a few thoughts here and there…

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Over the last few days, Howard Bender, Chad Young, and Ben Duronio have been writing about three players they will each avoid this season (parts one, two, three, and four), and now I’m going to join in on the fun.

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As beloved editor/writer Eno Sarris continues to roll out the RotoGraphs Consensus Positional Rankings, those of us not included in the Fab Four (with the handsome mugshots) but that cover a specific position were asked to chime in with our thoughts after the rankings were released.  You can find my personal rankings either on FantasyPros or on my site, but for now, let’s just talk backstops and the consensus rankings.  Also, don’t forget that next week we will be rolling out the position tiers as we did last season.

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Consensus Ranks: OF, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, and RP and SP.

Tiered Ranks: C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, NL OF, AL SP, NL SP, Holds.

After all the positions with all the disagreement, we hit one of the most difficult positions to fill… and we all agree. I mean, look at Alex Avila, who will most probably regress off of his numbers from last year — number eight right across the board. Apparently, I ‘love’ Mr. K, J.P. Arencibia, and showed that love by ranking him a full two spots ahead of everyone else. Even Jonathan Lucroy, who appears halfway down the list hand has very moderate upside, shows up around the same place on everyone’s list.

So which catcher inspired the most disagreement? Maybe it’s Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who finally paired a nice batting average on balls in play with his low-contact approach last year. Will he fend off Ryan Lavarnway (who didn’t quite play enough catcher to be a catcher this year) another season? We can’t seem to agree on John Buck, but maybe that’s because some of us choose to focus on how far away the new park’s walls are, and some of us choose to focus on how much shorter the walls are in that new left field. Some of us think Devin Mesoraco is going to take that job and run, some of us think that Ryan Hanigan will charm his veteran-loving manager into most of the playing time. Oh, and finally (mercifully), the Mets writer on staff liked the Mets player a little more than the rest of the rankers. Phew.

Catch yourself a catcher.

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Back in November I discussed bargain shopping in Houston and how there are still a few hidden gems that would make for strong selections at the tail end of your draft.  Well, today, we’re going to look at another perennial cellar-dwelling team and see what kind of fantasy gold can be found.  Funny thing, though, is that these Royals — these, more often than not, punching bags of the AL — are looking pretty darn good lately and there’s going to be quite the battle to obtain a number of their players’ services in fantasy drafts this year.

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I was looking over Ben Duronio’s 10 Bold Predictions the other day and while I may disagree with some of his calls, nothing inspired me to put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard?) quite like his last prediction that Chris Iannetta “puts it all together” this year.  I’m sure there are a number of my predictions that people will criticize and I’m happy to see it, but to me, Iannetta has been one of the most overvalued catchers in fantasy over the years and I don’t see a move to the Angels being the answer for him.

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We — collectively — are going to steal Mike Podhorzer’s idea and make some crazy predictions for the coming season. Every year, something happens to surprise baseball viewership. Jose Bautista and Lance Berkman come to mind over the past few years.

So let’s try to open our minds and let crazy in for some fun. Then we’ll look back at the end of the season and see which RotoGraphs staff member can access the other side most effectively — then we’ll scoot down the bench a little away from him.

1) No player will hit 40 home runs this year. Obviously Mike Stanton and Jose Bautista loom large, but there were only three guys that managed the feat last year, and the point is that power is down. Handy graph time!

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